Friendship, when they are equal, can work wonders big and small, I thought as I watched Dimitris Atanasoulis, curator of the Cycladic antiquities, walk exhibition “Moment and eternity” with his good friend, director of all archaeological museums in Italy, Massimo Osana.

Together, they coordinate the work of Greek and Italian archaeologists, restorers and crews who are working feverishly to have everything ready by Wednesday afternoon, when Italy’s minister of culture cuts the ribbon.

This is an exemplary Greek-Italian cultural partnership, amazing tribute with 300 masterpieces from ancient Greece, Rome, Etruscans, Byzantium, Renaissance but also in our time. It flows like a walk through the ages with an unstoppable flow of time that reaches the present day, but in the opposite direction. He seeks to return us to the beginning of everything, that is, to antiquity.

Then Greco-Roman civilization was born, the foundation on which ours was built. Therefore, through sculptures of rare value and beauty (some are so valuable that they have never traveled before) we clearly see the “debts” to our distant ancestors, what they bequeathed to us, what we owe them.

The exhibition is housed in an enviable space that has remained closed for 110 years. This is part of the Baths of Diocletian, majestic baths of Ancient Rome, next to the National Archaeological Museum of the Eternal City. A huge complex of buildings can be visited in most of it. With the exception of this part of it, which was opened only in 1910 to present an exhibition on the unification of Italy. It then became the museum’s warehouse and is now re-opening its doors to welcome unique works of art.

None of this would have happened if not for Massimo’s friendship. (who loves Greece and speaks ancient Greek and modern Greek) and Dimitris, who started working in the Cyclades in 2017 when they were introduced by the head of the French Archaeological School on Delos, Alexander Farnos.

Osana, at that time the director of Pompeii, gladly accepted the offer to contribute to the efforts to restore the monuments of the holy island and, to this end, joined the international scientific committee. This was followed by an exchange of visits and know-how between Greek and Italian experts. Osana, in turn, suggested the Byzantologist Athanasoulis as a member of another committee on the medieval monuments of Pompeii.

The first exhibition they produced together was “Vanity Jewelry Stories from the Cyclades”. which was also represented in Pompeii. This was followed by a tribute to Pompeii and Santorini. Eternity in one day” at the Scuderia del Quirinale in Rome. Now, in the Baths of Diocletian, for the third time, the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades and the Ministry of Antiquities will cooperate with the Italians, collecting exhibits of extraordinary beauty, such as archaic daughter of Thera, discovered during archaeological excavations in Santorini, 2.3 meters high.also the archaic Gorgo of Paros, amazing sculptures from Pompeii, bronze statue of an orator from Florence but also the Kouros of Florence. And it seems that the slogan “Greece, Italy, Union” fully justifies itself.